Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel

Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel
Born	Leonor da Fonseca Pimentel Chaves 13 January 1752 Rome
Died	Naples
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Poet

Eleonora Anna Maria Felice de Fonseca Pimentel (born Leonor da Fonseca Pimentel Chaves; 13 January 1752 – 20 August 1799) was an Italian poet and revolutionary connected with the Neapolitan revolution and subsequent short-lived Neapolitan Republic (also known as the Parthenopean Republic) of 1799, a sister republic of the French Republic and one of many set up in the 1790s in Europe.

Early life and family

Pimentel was born in Rome of Portuguese nobility. She wrote poetry, read Latin and Greek and spoke several languages (Italian, Portuguese, French and a little bit of English) As a child, she moved with her family to Naples as a result of political difficulties between the Papal States (of which Rome was the capital) and the Kingdom of Portugal. Her mother’s death in 1771 left her with a substantial dowry, and she became engaged to her first cousin, Miguel Lopes. In 1776 the engagement broke off, and her father acquired a husband for her, Pasquale Tria de Solis, lieutenant of Neapolitan Army, whom she married In 1778. In October of the same year, she gave birth to Francesco. However, the infant died about eight months later. He was the only child from Eleonora because of mistreatment by her husband which caused her two miscarriages. These tragedies led to the creation of several of her most notable works. Six years later, seeing the mistreatment of his daughter and the misuse of her dowry, Pimentel’s father asked before the court for his daughter to be returned home. In 1784 the Court of Naples granted the discontinuation of Solis’ authority over Pimentel, and she was sent back to her familial home. One year later her father died, and she was on her own. Alone and in ill health due to her newfound poverty, she went before the king and asked for a small pension, which she was granted thanks to her literary merits.

Literary history

Her poetry was written in reformist, neoclassical style, evocative of the period of Enlightenment. Her other literary works often discussed praise or reformation of the monarchy. As her literary abilities grew she gained notoriety through winning several royal writing competitions. This allowed her entrance to several notable Neapolitan literary societies and gave way to her correspondence with the foremost literati of the time. Metastasio labelled her "l’amabilissima musa del Tago," or "The most amicable muse of the Tagus." Voltaire dedicated a poem to her in which he refers to her as "Nightingale of beautiful Italy". Other prominent literary figures she kept in contact with include Gaetano Alberto, Antonio, and Ferdinando Galiani. She often translated works from other foreign languages to add to her income after her separation from her husband. Pimentel’s commentary on her translations of works lead to the categorization of her as a political author. Her notoriety also lead to her appointment as royal librarian to the Queen of Naples, Maria Carolina of Austria. In 1799 She created, worked as Editor-in-Chief, and wrote for Il Monitore Napoletano, a significant republican newspaper named in emulation of Le Moniteur Universel in France. The paper printed thirty-five issues within its lifespan of 2 February – 8 June 1799.

Becoming a revolutionary

In the 1790s she became involved in the Jacobin movement in Naples that was working to overthrow the monarchy and establish a local version of the French Republic. Pimentel, and others who were well educated and spoke several languages including French, became suspicious to the monarchy. She believed in the French revolutionary principles that were being circulated at the time which were Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Her beliefs were secular and republican. She also believed in the importance of educating the masses. After King Ferdinand IV fled Naples, She and other Jacobins welcomed the French army. The launch of her newspaper turned her into a well-known political revolutionary. Il Monitore Napoletano discussed the challenges facing the new Neapolitan Republic, praised the arrival of the French army, conveyed republican themes, and criticized the Bourbon monarchy. She was one of the leaders of the revolution that overthrew the Bourbon monarchy and installed the Parthenopean Republic in January 1799. However, as time went on she became more disillusioned with the French army, and began to warn the readers of her newspaper about the dangers of possible chaos and anarchy. When the Republic was overthrown and the Bourbon monarchy restored in June 1799, she was one of the revolutionaries executed by the royal tribunals implemented by the restored monarchy.

Arrest and death

On June 28, a group of republicans, including Pimentel boarded ships bound for France after the commencement of the fall of the Neapolitan Republic. However, before the ships could deport, she was taken into custody. She was arrested, processed and later sentenced to death, by hanging, on 20 August 1799. She was arrested because of her revolutionary activities and writings against the monarchy, the guiltiest of which being a poem written for the birth of Queen Carolina's second child, in which she refers to her as an “impure lesbian” and an “unfaithful imbecile tyrant.” Pimentel asked to be beheaded, as was customary for people of nobility given the death penalty, however her request was denied. The Kingdom of Naples only recognized her father’s nobility, and additionally as a Jacobin she was no longer publicly viewed as nobility. As a woman once viewed as nobility that had spoken out against the monarchy, she was used to be made an example through her hanging. Of eight other patriots sentenced, she was the last to be hung. On the day of her hanging in Piazza Mercato, her last wish was only for a cup of coffee. As she was calm as she went to the gallows, and the monarch’s loyalists shouted: "Long Live Carolina, Death to the Jacobina." Her last words were in Latin, a quote from Virgil’s The Aeneid: "Forsan et haec olim meninisse juvabit," which translates to "perhaps it will please one day to remember these things."

Notable works

• Il Tempio della Gloria ("the Time of Glory") (1768)
• La Nascita de Orfeo ("The Birth of Orpheus") (1775)
• Il Trionfo della Virtu ("The Triumph of Virtue") (1776)
• Sonetto Napoletano ("Neapolitan Sonnet") (c. 1788)
• Sonetti per S. Leucio ("Sonnets for S. Leucio") (1789)
• La Fuga in Egitto ("The Flight to Egypt") (1792)
• Sonetti in Morte del Suo Unico Figlio ("Sonnets for the Death of my Only Son") (1779–1784)
• Ode Elegiaca ("Elegiatic Ode") (1779–1784)

Further reading

• Benedetto Croce, Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel, Roma, Tipografia Nazionale, 1887 (Italian)
• Bice Gurgo, Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, Napoli, Cooperativa Libreria, 1935 (Italian)
• Maria Antonietta Macciocchi, Cara Eleonora, Milano, Rizzoli, 1993 (Italian)
• Enzo Striano, Il resto di niente. Storia di Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel e della rivoluzione napoletana del 1799, Napoli, Avagliano 1999; Milano, Rizzoli 2001, 2004 (Italian)
• Nico Perrone, La Loggia della Philantropia, Palermo, Sellerio, 2006 ISBN 88-389-2141-5 (Italian)
• Maria Rosaria Pelizzari, Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel: morire per la rivoluzione, Storia delle Donne 4/2008 - «Correrò questo rischio» Sacrificio, sfida, resistenza (Italian)
• Constance H.D. Giglioli (1903), Naples in 1799 an account of the Revolution of 1799 and of the rise and fall of the Parthenopean Republic, Londra, John Murray, Albermale Street.

External links

• This item is an abridged version of an article from an external source and has been placed here by the author and copyright holder of that article.
• Biographie Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel by EPOCHE NAPOLEON (German)
• ZEIT-Artikel von Fried (German)
• Project Continua: Biography of Eleonora de Donseca Pimentel